Hush Now
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day one thousand and sixty-three: Sue comes home one day to find her daughter in tears, and she does all she can to make her feel better. - Sylvesters series


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 50th cycle. Now cycle 51!_

* * *

**"Hush Now"  
Sue & Brittany  
Sylvesters series  
_(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)_  
**

Ever since Brittany and the others had quit the Cheerios, it had been harder to keep track of any… developments in her life, not immediately. So if anything was ever wrong, she had no idea… until she got home. That day was the same.

When Sue got home, she called for her daughter but got no answer, so she figured she wasn't home yet. She went into her office, worked on things for a while before she went into the kitchen to look into whatever they'd have for dinner. And now she saw she'd had it wrong… her daughter had come home.

Her backpack had been left on the ground, next to the table, dropped there, and the orange juice sat opened on the counter. Brittany always did that… She also answered when Sue called. So why hadn't she this time?

She ran up the stairs, to her daughter's room, afraid of what she'd find.

What she found was her daughter lying on her bed, curled up and gently running her fingers through her cat's fur. Her eyes were fixed on the purring animal, running over with tears.

She let out a breath when she saw her, and as tempted as she was to yell at her for the scare she'd just given her, but then seeing her now, the way she looked… She knew something was wrong, and yelling wouldn't help. Even she had limits to her meanness.

"Lord Tubbington has a stomach ache…" Brittany acknowledged her presence with a small faraway voice. "Rubbing it helps, Santana showed me…"

"Can I help?" Sue asked, and her daughter's blue eyes turned up. "With Lord Tubbington…" she shook her head; she'd always found the name silly, and yet coming from her, she had to accept it.

"Be gentle with him, okay?" Brittany sat up, pulling the cat in her lap. Sue sat before her and carefully started rubbing the cat's stomach as her daughter had.

"Like this?" she asked, and Brittany gave one nod. The cat stared up at her like he was wondering why she was touching him all of a sudden, when she'd always ignored him before. She took a breath, looking back to the girl, who was staring back down at the cat, still quietly crying.

Sue wanted to ask her what was wrong, why she was crying so much that she had either not heard or chosen not to respond when she'd called to her before. But in the state she was in, she knew she wouldn't get a thing out of her. All she could know was that she needed comforting… and Sue could and would do that.

"Wonder where he got the stomach ache from."

"He finished my ice cream this morning." She was about to ask 'the one you had last night?' but she answered her question in the process. "I told him not to, but he's stubborn and I can't say no to that face," Brittany explained, sniffling.

"Well, it takes one, I guess…" Sue spoke to herself before looking back to her. "He'll learn his lesson then." She paused. "Are you tired?" she asked. "How about you lie down again?" Brittany shrugged. "I can lie down with you, if you want? Remember, like when you were little?" Sue saw a flicker of the memory play itself in the girl's eyes. Sue knew this was what she needed, even if she wouldn't ask for it. Now she had given her a way to get it without asking for it.

"All three of us?" she asked, looking to the cat in her lap.

"All three," Sue agreed, so Brittany returned to her previous position, resting on her side, with the cat curled up against her, kissing his head while Sue moved around to lie down parallel to her. When she got her arm wrapped around her daughter, the girl instinctively backed up to be further in her arms. Sue started telling her about her day, anything she could think of, going into detail and embellishments and anything that would lengthen her story and the time it took her to tell it, the better to let Brittany cry in peace, in the arms of one who'd been there and loved her all her life.

This had been a day she would give anything to forget, though she knew she wouldn't. This was the day Artie said the words that had hit her like a whip to the face.

"_God, Brittany, why are you so stupid?"_

She'd never heard those words from him, not ever, and she'd thought she never would, never from him, he wouldn't… But he had, and it changed him in her eyes. Now she would see him and the words would echo in her brain.

In her heart she knew they were over. She knew what people called her, thought of her, and she couldn't take it, not from him, not if he was supposed to be her boyfriend. Maybe she'd forgive him enough to be friends with him again, but… they were done.

Her heart wasn't adjusting too quick, and once she'd gotten home, it had all hit hard, breaking her down. Looking after her cat had been all she could do not to completely fall apart.

Now though she was being held in the warmth of her mother's arms, the one everyone just saw as hard and ruthless… She had one of the biggest hearts she knew, and no one had any idea. Wrapped in those arms, she did feel like she was safe, small, the way she used to be when she was a kid… Her mother would hold her like this, and she knew nothing could touch her, not nightmares, not even words…

She'd also brush at the hair around her forehead, not unlike how Brittany ran her fingers through the cat's fur, and the effect was the same. It was calming, and soon the cat was dozing off, and so was the blonde girl.

"Mom?" she mumbled.

"Just sleep, okay?" she just continued. "You'll feel better after," she promised. "Go to sleep…" she told her. After a few more seconds, she had felt her face relax under her fingers, saw she'd stopped stroking the cat… She was asleep.

Whatever had made her like this, if she wouldn't tell her about it, Sue hoped she could still be sure Brittany would get through it and recover. If she did tell her though, she would listen.

The next day when she'd heard about the break-up, she knew. She'd have to resist getting back at the Abrams kid for this. But then, prom was coming…

THE END

* * *

******A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
************always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


End file.
